READER'S PERCEPTION IN LITERATURE STUDIES: TOWARDS THE HISTORY AND THEORY OF THE QUESTION
In: Vestnik Moskovskogo Universiteta: naučnyj žurnal = Moscow State University bulletin. Serija 9, Filologija, Heft 6, S. 85-99
The article
is devoted to studying the perception of a literary text
(hereinafter referred to as LT), which is relevant for the current state of literature
research, as projected on the theoretical prerequisites of the domestic prehistory of
European receptive aesthetics. Russian philology has developed two approaches to
LT — the psychological ("Russian psychological school" by A.A. Potebnya and his
followers) and the purely formal ("Russian formal school" of the language — OPOYAZ) ones. Cognitive poetics as the mainstream modern fi eld of literature studies
combines these approaches in the light of the goals that it sets for itself: the study of
both the formal and semantic organization of the text and its understanding by the
reader. Th e focus of the study into a work of literature is its understanding, therefore,
the meaning of the text turns out to be a scientific priority, as well as the development
of algorithms for its reconstruction in the reader's perception. In this regard, the
terminological apparatus is of particular importance, assuming the differentiation
of the terms of the triad "apprehension-perception-reception". Studying reader's
perception particularly focuses on L.S. Vygotsky's concept of the influence of the
text's rhythm on reader.